Since my last post, this ruddy duck and I have been in a “nature” mode.  


Ruddy’s home is Estero Liano Grande State Park in Weslaco along with this snowy egret and yellow-crowned night-heron.  


Lucky to have the bird book from Phyllis to identify the multitude of birds/ducks found in this area.

Snowy Egret

Yellow-crowned night-heron

In an earlier post, I raved about the interior and exterior of McAllen’s beautiful Quinta Mazatlan.

Great Kiskadee

Last month, I returned and identified these birds plus came across Mac's favorite.

White-winged dove

Plain chachalaca

Yes, there are squirrels in Texas

After learning that the green jay is only seen in southern Texas, 

I  was thrilled to see three of these beautiful (green, yellow, blue, and black colors) jays while visiting Bentsen State Park in Mission. 

 An oriole and junco share space with the green jay

 Couldn’t help but be reminded of Hitchcock’s “Bird” movie with this scene.

The variety of water fowl at Edinburg’s World Birding Center provided opportunities for me to identify this American coot and black-bellied whistling-duck individually and in a flock.

American coot

black-bellied whistling-duck

Prickly pear cactus with new growth and flowers

February has been a bit rainy (much needed), so the Kite Festival was cancelled earlier this month; hopefully, I’ll be able to go to the Falcon Dam area on Saturday where birds are said to fly up to where birders are sitting (because of food placement).